“I didn’t realize the effect [the King assassination] had on that city. […] I think from people we talk to and stuff we’ve read, the shooting kind of sets the tone for how the city thinks about stuff. We were at Game 3. Great crowd, they fall behind and the whole crowd got tense. It as like, ‘Oh no, something bad is going to happen.’ And it starts from that shooting and it’s just that mindset they have.”

So let me see if I can get this straight. Bill Simmons thinks that because of the national tragedy that was Martin Luther King’s assassination in front of a Memphis hotel, Memphis sports fans, and most importantly Grizzlies fans, think back to that tragic time anytime Zach Randolph misses a lay-up or Mike Conley commits a turnover?

I’m sure such an event effects people for many years to come, but I would love to know how many Grizzlies fans were actually alive in 1968.